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Rambutan
Nephelium lappaceum · Tropical fruit
40 pairings
The rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum) is a small tropical fruit of the soapberry family, native to Southeast Asia and instantly recognised by the soft, curling hair-like spines that cover its red or yellow rind — "rambut" is Malay for hair. The leathery, spiny shell peels away to reveal a translucent, glistening white flesh wrapped around a single seed: sweet, gently floral and grapey, with low acidity and a milder, less heady perfume than its close cousin the lychee. It is eaten fresh out of hand, canned in syrup (often stuffed with pineapple), and made into jams and juices across the tropics.
Picking a good onedrag
Bright and taut, spines springyRind blackened, flesh watery
Colour dullingSkin fading, flesh unchanged. Rambutan is non-climacteric, so a green-skinned sour one never sweetens at home - it is as ripe as it will ever be.Everyday best
RindColour dulling, brown creeping in at the tips
The hairsFirmer, tips darkening, still bending under a finger
StalkStalk drying tan, the scar clean and dry
SmellAlmost nothing, a green leafy trace
What to look for, from bright and taut, spines springy to rind blackened, flesh watery.
What one gives you
38%
Usable yield
About 10 g of aril from a 26 g fruit; rind and seed are the rest. Morton's cultivars run 26-44% flesh, so it swings hard by variety.
26 g
Typical weight
one specimen
Keeping ittap a band
AH-66 puts the lowest safe temperature at 10 C, the injury showing as a darkened rind. A fridge browns skin and spines, though the aril inside usually stays white.
Humidity
90-95%
The browning is water loss. AH-66 gets a fortnight at 90-95% RH but only 3 to 5 days at 20 C and 60% RH, so keep the fruit bagged and damp.
Airflow
Sealed, not vented
AH-66 stores rambutan in sealed polyethylene bags and displays it in unperforated clamshells, and says not to mist or ice it. Draughty open air dries it out.
Ignores the fruit bowl, and is ignored back
Rambutan is non-climacteric and gives off under 0.04 uL/kg/h; added ethylene does not even speed its colour loss, so apples beside it change nothing.